A Super Department Model for Multi-University Collaboration

Since 2013, a partnership of Electrical and Computer Engineering programs from nearly 20 Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) have been collaborating to produce more and better-prepared graduates by leveraging connections between partner institutions and outside organizations from academia, government and industry. Key to the success of this collaboration has been the development of a virtual working community of practice through regular online and in-person meetings, resource and idea sharing, collaborative assessment and publication/dissemination of results, advocacy and mentoring for one another, and mutual trust. The lessons learned have led the partners to form a non-profit organization to provide the infrastructure to support joint activities and programs. This new organization has enabled the group to expand the collaboration scope to address the full learning and working experience of students and faculty and include other MSIs. Its vision is to be a collaboration of Minority Serving Institutions Working as One organized as a virtual super department with broadly based strengths in education, scholarship and service. In time, the organization will grow and the model being developed replicated and implemented for other disciplines.